Forgetting it’s not April Idiot’s Day, Riot Video games simply introduced that two-time Grammy award-winning artist Lil Nas X is the president of League of Legends.
Though the writer introduced this by way of a real press launch, in actuality, Riot Video games didn’t, in fact, truly rent the pop music icon as its president. Whereas the publicity stunt didn’t cease Riot Video games and “Lil Nas Xecutive” from having some enjoyable in a goofy YouTube announcement video and redubbing League’s official Twitter account as “LoLNasX,” the pop star will actually be closely concerned with League of Legends’ approaching 2022 League World Championship.
In response to the press launch, Lil Nas X’s upcoming track, “STAR WALKIN’,” which he’s scheduled to carry out reside on the Worlds opening ceremony on November 5, will function the occasion’s official anthem. Along with lending League his music, Lil Nas X helped co-design a status pores and skin for the sport’s latest character Okay’Sante, the Pleasure of Nazumah. The pores and skin will launch worldwide on November 3 and be unlockable till November 14.
Riot Video games’ YouTube vid with Lil Nas X is fairly entertaining, with scenes depicting the pop star sitting on a gold throne, staff distributing telephones that play his new monitor, and underlings gawking at how apparently, by merely saying you might be one thing— just like the president of League—it may mechanically come true. However don’t get it twisted, the online game firm’s try at satire ignores its precise, harrowing enterprise practices.
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Learn Extra: Inside The Tradition Of Sexism At Riot Video games
In December of 2021, Riot Video games agreed to pay a $100 million settlement in a gender discrimination lawsuit levied in opposition to the corporate again in 2018, wherein a former worker alleged the corporate of fostering a “men-first” setting.
This previous April, an worker at Riot likened working there to “Russian roulette” when the corporate determined to drop not simply its vaccine and masks mandates but additionally the requirement that unvaccinated staff endure common covid testing. This, at a time when case numbers for covid-19 continued to rise
And, in fact, it’s the corporate the place an government truly needed to resign after making abhorrent feedback about George Floyd, whose homicide by Minneapolis police sparked 2020’s renewed BLM protests.
Whereas it’s all enjoyable and video games, fairly actually, for Riot Video games to advertise its upcoming esports extravaganza with a music and social media icon of Lil Nas X’s renown, its promotional YouTube video is tone-deaf to the precise work situations that the corporate has cultivated.
